John 16:1-4

¹"All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. ²They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. ³They will do such things because they have not known the Father or Me. ⁴I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you."

If we think about this discourse as a whole, it is effectively a grand sermon that begins and ends with the same point. The point, back in chapter 14 was this, “Do not let your heart be troubled.” And the point at the end of chapter 16 is the same, “In Me you may have peace. In the world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” So Jesus is preaching a grand sermon called, “How to have peace and keep you heart from distress,” to His small audience of eleven men. Jesus teaches the disciples about the Father, about Himself, and about the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity is meant to give us peace. In this portion of chapter 16, Jesus continues from chapter 15, where He explained that God’s pruning of the branches to cause them to bear more fruit would come to the disciples in the form of persecution. The news gets direr here, as Jesus reveals that this persecution would lead to excommunication from the Jewish synagogue, and even death.

In v1, Jesus says that the reason He told the disciples everything in chapter 15 was so that they would not go astray. Prophecy has an amazing ability to hold our attention. Think of the Jews, who even today believe that Messiah is coming, thanks to the prophecy spoken to them 2500 years ago. These disciples trusted Jesus, so His explaining to them what would happen in the days (and years) to come held their attention and kept them from straying. When excommunication threatens religious folks, fear sets in and perhaps keeps them in check; but knowing about it in advance strengthens people to face the threat and maintain their course in the way of the Lord. For example, Martin Luther was asked to renounce his position before the archdiocese, and his reply was, “Here I stand; I can do nothing more.” V2 is one of my favorites, because it speaks so intimately to the reality of martyrdom, especially in light of Muslim aggression. The true Islam would have any non-believers killed as a service to God. Jesus says that time is coming. It is now here. V3 adds to this explanation. Why would people killing others think they were doing God a favor? Because they have never known God, and they have certainly never known Christ. Thus we learn what a serious offense it is to never come to know the Lord. The fruit of unbelief is increasing wickedness.

In 1685, there was Margaret McLoughlin, a 63 year-old widow and Margaret Wilson, a young girl of 18, and both of them had refused to bow to the order that they should worship according to Episcopalian rules. They just simply wouldn’t do that and Margaret McLaughlin had taken every opportunity to go and hear Presbyterian ministers preaching the gospel, and for which she was put in prison with no bed and no fire to keep her warm. When the Abduration Oath was put to them, they refused it and were found guilty “and the sentence was that upon the 11th of May, instant, both of them should be tied to stakes fixed within the flood mark of the water near of Bladnoch near Wigtown where the sea flows at high water, there to be drowned. The two women were brought from Wigtown with a numerous crowd of spectators to so extraordinary and execution. Major Windram with some soldiers guarded them to the place of execution. The old woman’s stake was a good way in beyond the other, and she was first dispatched in order to terrify the other to a compliance with such oaths and conditions as they required; but in vain, for she had adhered to her principles with an unshaken steadfastness. When the water was overflowing her fellow martyr, some about Margaret Wilson asked her what she thought of the other now struggling with the pangs of death. She answered, “What do I see but Christ wrestling there? Think you that we are the sufferers? No, it is Christ in us for He sends none a warfare upon their own charges.” And Margaret Wilson was at the stake and she sang the 25th Psalm from verse 7 downward a good way and read the eighth chapter of Romans with a great deal of cheerfulness and then prayed. And while at prayer, the water covered her, but before she was quite dead they pulled her up and held her out of the water until she was recovered and able to speak and then by Major Windram’s orders she was asked if she would pray for the king. She answered she wished the salvation of all men and the damnation of none. One deeply affected with the death of the other and her case said, “Dear Margaret, say ‘God save the king,’ and she answered in the greatest steadiness and composure, “God save him, if He will for it is his salvation I desire.” Whereupon some of the relations nearby, desirous to have her life spared if possible, called out to Major Windram, “Sir, she hath said it, she hath said it!” Whereupon the Major came near and offered to her the abduration charging her instantly to swear it, otherwise returning her to the water. Most deliberately she refused and said, “I will not. I am one of Christ’s children. Let me go.” Upon which she was thrust down again into the water where she finished her course with joy.

Finally, v4 reveals why Jesus told the disciples this harsher news about their potential martyrdom. They are to remember that He warned them; this recollection would serve to encourage their faith. This harsh news was not to be told too soon, for Jesus was/is bearing the brunt of the persecution. Once He departs, however, the disciples will become the main target of persecution. And as a poorly rooted faith might flee at this news of potential martyrdom; a deep-rooted faith, as we’ve seen, stands firm even in the most unbearable of circumstances.